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Friday, August 17, 2018

Very random Star Wars Rambling

What puzzles me most about the various Star Wars stories
that occur after Jedi is the naming of Leia and Han’s children.To be more precise, it is the naming of Ben
or Anakin.Why the hell would either of
those be in either parent’s top ten list.

I
suppose, you could say that it was though Ben Kenobi that Han and Leia met so
that’s why.But really doesn’t quite
work.And, yes, Anakin is named for Leia’s
biological father, who stood by and watched her real father get blown to
smithereens along with everyone else on Aldrin after over seeing her torture.True, Vader did save his son, but that’s Luke’s
business.

Why,
for instance, wouldn’t Leia want to name her son after her father – Bail.The man who raised her, who quite clearly in
the movies and the books, loved her as a daughter?Who was by any measure a good father? We could argue that Padme’s genetics make Leia
partly who she is, but those same genes are in Luke, who whines quite a
bit.Leia was raised to serve.She makes tough decisions that, quite
frankly, Han and Luke don’t really have.(It’s also telling that when Luke is called upon to make a tough
decision, to stay with Yoda, he choses to go save his friends.It’s understandable.But Leia plays for time and does not sell out
the Rebellion. That’s a hell of choice
and cool head).Leia is the leader you
want, in many respects.And who is responsible
for that?

Not
Vader, that’s for sure.

But the
naming of the Ben and Anakin also strikes the mother from the record.Before the editing and editing, in Jedi, Leia
remembers her mother.We’re never given
a name, we were told she was sad, but not a name, at least not in that
movie.

In the
Star Wars universe, it seems that the bloodline, and only the bloodline,
matters.Take for instance, all the complicated
theories that people are still floating about Rey’s parents.Or the fact that we all seem okay with how
quickly Luke forgets his aunt and uncle.More exactly, it is the biological father that counts more than the
mother.Kylo must kill Han, not Leia,
even though Leia is the force sensitive.When Ben has the chance to kill Leia, he can’t.He cannot bring himself to do this.Perhaps Rian Johnson intends this not only as
a comment on how far to the dark side Kylo is, but a comment on who was the
better parent.It is the only time we
have seen a mother actual matter in terms of being a mother in the films.Padme isn’t a mother, she’s a vessel who conveniently
forgives her abuser before her death.

Being a
father apparently counts more in the Star Wars universe.Because he saves his son, Anakin is able to
appear as a happy force ghost. Kylo goes bad, according to Han, because he's too much Vader. Dude, you were his pops.

WTF?Okay, I am undoubtedly bringing a Christian view
to it, but we don’t see the Emperor’s Force Ghost hanging with Yoda, do we?